posted April 13, 2012 09:21 AM
My guess is that Ken Films released Equinox because of a connection with producer Jack H. Harris. Harris may possibly be the producer with the most releases on 8mm! Republic (later Ken) put out The Blob, The 4D Man and Dinosaurus. Then Ken released Master of Horror and Equinox. Dark Star was distributed both as a digest and a full length feature by Iver Film Services. Piccolo Film had a 2x400' German language The Eyes of Laura Mars. Equinox was also released as a 4x400' feature by Powell.

When I played the Disney digests my nieces were terribly disappointed. The youngest one picked up on the two Bedknobs and Broomsticks cutdownsand that one edition had an ending that belonged on the end of the other.reel.Why?

--------------------Isn't it great that we can all communicate about this great hobby that we love!

posted April 13, 2012 03:32 PM
I only heard of Fritz Lang's Spies a few weeks ago. That was when a friend, with two copies, offered to sell me one. Here are pics from a trial run of the first reel; appears to be another Blackhawk beauty.

posted April 16, 2012 12:31 PM
Last night we watched Thunderbird print of a hammy cue card reading 1932 feature...The Hurricane Express. I'm sure glad no one in Hollyweird held this movie against John Wayne when it came time for casting future movies.

posted April 16, 2012 07:10 PM
I like serials, and that is why it was gifted to me...the person who gave it to me knew that and thought it was a serial. In fact I was on the phone with him between reels and the subject came up was this title a serial or feature...

By the time all the "serial" stuff was edited out it makes a run time of right at 78 minutes although IMDB lists the edited at 79 minutes

posted April 16, 2012 08:38 PM
I saw the 200 foot Super 8 mm TWENTY THOUSAND LEAGUES UNDER THE SEA nice color and contrast nice but I wish Disney had done a full feature and a nice 400 " Digest. I have a RESTORED article in the forum check it out I went to the showing in Hollywood last weekend.

--------------------" Faster then a speeding bullet, more powerful then a Locomotive "."Look up in the sky it's a bird it's a plane it's SUPERMAN"

I watched one reel a night the past week. It is the super 8 silent feature. It is the uncut version. I have the film on laserdisc and it is the 99 min version. The super 8 print (although silent) is the long 110 min version and the quality is very good. Very powerful film.

posted April 25, 2012 06:09 AM
LET ME SING 1933200ft Collectors ClubThis was released around the final year of Collectors Club operating as a business selling low cost package movies. By this time they had switched to a slightly better printed film stock for better results and the magnetic stripe had even got better for sound recording. Let me Sing is a musical reel which features Al Jolson, Harry Langdon amongst others and is taken from the 1933 film Hallelujiah, I’m a tramp (Bum). The feature is quite unusual in many ways and this little reel is a nice episode from the movie which is an entertaining slice of Hollywood history if you like vintage material that is. Sound quality is good and has that sort of deep crisp sound the old Warner musicals used to have which is always a pleasure to hear let alone watch the film. The master material used had a few marks but on the whole not bad for CC.

As mentioned about a year later from the release of this short Collectors Club were no more and I missed them at that time having been ‘in the club’ for some time like many others. Derann picked up the negative I seem to remember and did prints as well but they were missing one tiny thing, that little yellow or blue box Collectors Club members looked forward to receiving along with the film inside it.Happy days.

posted April 29, 2012 09:45 PM
Did not take pictures but watched a ton of movies this weekend... Friday night I screened a gorgeous 16mm LPP print of ANNIE HALL for a group of USC cinema students that wanted to experience a film screening.

Saturday I programmed an entire day of films for a group of friends here in Long Beach that get together to watch films periodically. The films were as follows:

posted April 30, 2012 01:11 PM
Last Friday night my son's Cub Scout Pack had their monthly Pack Night. Every April they have a bakeoff where the cakes follow a theme, and they structure the night's events to fit.

This year they chose "A Night at the Movies". At the planning meeting somebody came up with "Steve Klare has movie projectors and real films.", so I was asked to do a film for the boys. I said “Yes.” (Scrooge himself couldn’t say “No.” to the Cub Scouts!)

To me the prospect was a little bit...challenging: when you get down to it what this was about was showing up with a 35 year old machine and having a fine opportunity to have it flame out in front of about a hundred people, many of who don’t get the whole “film thing” and therefore might think I'm an idiot!

So I took my most trusted machine (Elmo ST-800: not sexy but simple!) and popped off the back cover. The belts had a couple of small splits so I ordered a new set and installed them. The lamp is recent so I left it alone and just brought a spare.

The room we use has a full time sound system, and given a little prep. time I bet I could have connected in, but in the interest of keeping it simple I stayed unplugged. For a few days before I used the machine on the internal speaker just to be sure it still works.

I got the school to find me a genuine projector cart, which had probably felt the weight of many a machine back in 16mm days. It was in the back room loaded with copy machine paper. The custodian I talked to about this was maybe 25 (not a clue…).

I was ready, but it was still iffy: It was a bigger screen than I’ve ever projected on and I was running a hundred watt bulb, and the room was big and full of hyperactive boys for my little round speaker to overcome. The film was The Little Rascals “Hook and Ladder”(Blackhawk): black and white and maybe a little ancient for even some of the parents. Still the same: great film, great print too.

A few minutes later I had a nice big image up on stage and the acoustics of the room allowed the machine to operate below half volume. The boys and their parents loved the movie too. What a rare thing to see this bunch sitting quietly paying attention to anything!

I looked up at my Elmo humming along like it was two weeks old, and I thought “Ahhh! That’s why I do this stuff!”

--------------------All I ask is a wide screen and a projector to light her by...

posted April 30, 2012 01:26 PM
Thanks 4 those screenshots of "M". I've always admired that film. I think it's a perfect example of taking a horrifying storyline and without trashy exploitive imagery (likie we would today), tell a story that, though we're disgusted by the character, we watch, none the less.

--------------------"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "